The reason?
No, it’s not technology…
Buyer’s habits have changed to a point of no return.
More and more people avoid hours stuck in traffic, long lines at the supermarket or retail store, and all the not-so-fun aspects of the usual buying experience.
Who can blame them?
In 2022 over 2.14 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online.
Facebook and Instagram know it well.
Long gone are the days where being noticed on Facebook was “free”.
It’s never been, really.
Posting might be free, but what about the time dedicated to build an effective Facebook strategy?
And the time to create those posts, share, comment, testing, analyzing…?
But that’s a topic for another day.
Facebook’s pay-to-play policy is more alive than ever, and the businesses making it BIG are leveraging the potential of Facebook and Instagram ads to promote their products and drive more sales than ever.
Anecdotally, what we already know AND what research has shown, is that social media drives purchasing decisions.
An e-store that sells your products 24/7 sounds exciting.
In fact, it is!
…until time goes by without the amount of sales you’d like to see – if any at all.
You’re eCommerce store alone won’t do the trick.
And unless you’re willing to wait months, or YEARS, to see cash-flow, organic social media posts won’t do it either.
How much longer will you wait to drive sales to your eCommerce business with Facebook and Instagram?
If you’re ready to stop treating your website as a physical store – and losing lots of money in the process! – keep reading…
Making the most out of Facebook and Instagram advertising goes beyond just using the Business Manager.
The use of a specific tools alone is far from guaranteeing optimal results in your campaign.
A strategic segmentation is what creates the magic.
In a few words, it means know your audience.
Who are most in need with that you offer?
Attractive copy and graphics can bring eager people to go to your website and buy what you offer, if they see your ad at all…
To put your irresistible offer in front of those willing – and ready – to buy, here’s some aspects to consider in your existing, or future, Facebook ads campaigns:
Location
Do you own a local business, but sometimes get likes and engagement from people overseas?
Whether it’s a retail store, a restaurant, a legal office, targeting people located in your city, and surrounding area increases your chances of getting engagement and business from people across the street!
Take advantage of any events happening locally, like fairs, trade shows, conferences, concerts, and more, that your target audience might be interested in.
If you’ll be there, tell them!
If there’s a raffle or other promotion they can be part of, let them know through Facebook ads.
Your campaign can be even more effective if combined with related organic posts and offline actions like sponsorships and collaborations with other participants.
Contextual messages can also increase exposure and engagement from an audience located in a specific neighborhood, city or county.
For example: if it’s cold or rainy, invite them to buy raincoats and jackets on your online store.
This is something global business don’t have.
Use it to connect with the locals.
Facebook improves campaign segmentation allowing you to target people within a custom mile radius (min. 1-mile).
You can even type your address and people living, working, or visiting that area will be able to see your ad.
Targeting high-end potential customers?
Use your knowledge of a certain area or city, and specify neighborhoods or sectors they visit frequently.
Which places would they like to visit in the city?
Think about restaurants, hotels, spas, and more.
See more information about location targeting Facebook audiences.
Behavior
Facebook has more information about us than we think.
If we like to go out a lot, if we travel often, even if we’re likely to move soon… gold for any advertiser.
Depending on the goals you have for a specific campaign, you can target people that have liked your page, interacted with your shopify store, product landing pages, or marketing funnel in the last 30, 60, or 90 days.
Especially those that visited the check out page but didn’t complete the purchase.
Have you ever seen Amazon or Ebay ads “following” you across Social media platforms or the through random web banners?
And what about those that purchased at least one of your products lately?
Cross-sell and up-sell can bring more cash to your business.
If they bought a jacket, maybe they need also a sweater, a hat, a pair of boots?
Or, instead, you prefer to give a first-purchase discount to those that just found you on Google or Bing?
Thanks to behavioral targeting, the possibilities to attract more buyers and reinforce the relationship with them after purchase are huge.
Interests
Knowing your target audience means knowing the topics they’re most interested in:
Facebook offers a wide and always growing variety of interests to choose from.
They know which posts we engage with most, which links we’re likely to click on, and products we’ll have a tough time saying no to.
No matter what your product strategy is, Facebook has interests to choose from.
Make sure you know your audience enough to pick wisely in order to optimize your budget use.
Timing
Besides behavior and interests, another aspect you want to consider in any Facebook ads targeting campaign is timing.
Any holidays coming up?
Christmas, Mother’s and Father’s Day, St. Valentine’s, Thanksgiving and more are high season for retail stores.
Hell! GO CRAZY – here’s an awesome resource showing every holiday (yes… there’s one just about every day!)
Whether they sell offline or online, people are busy trying to find the perfect gift.
Give them a hand.
A majority of shoppers believe Black Friday sales begin before Black Friday: Just 28% said they start the day after Thanksgiving.
So if reaching a new audience and attracting more customers is among your plans, you better create ads campaigns that reach those people.
And what about those non-official, fun holidays, like National Dog Day, Black Cat Day, Siblings Day, Workaholic Day or even Plan a Solo Vacation Day?
Make sure to include those days in your content marketing strategy, and plan Facebook ads campaigns accordingly.
More than one dog or black cat owner, sibling and workaholic in need of a vacation will be grateful!
How can you tackle the “low seasons“?
There are birthdays and anniversaries throughout the year, so new product launches, content promotions, and discounts will be welcomed.
Life Events
Big life changes require investments, so here’s another powerful way to attract new customers to your online store.
You can target engaged people, recently married, parents of young children, even their friends!
They have a lot of things to think about, so if they need ideas for gifts, children toys and other supplies, or a new home, they keep your business in mind to fulfill their needs.
Go to your Facebook feed right now.
What do you see?
Besides family and friends publications, it’ll be loaded with videos from mainstream media and blogs.
Coincidence?
Far from it.
It’s known that in the last years, Facebook has reduced dramatically the reach of organic posts, but with videos the story is different – especially videos uploaded to the platform.
Since Facebook treats YouTube videos as any other link, Facebook native videos have up to 86% higher reach.
It’s not hard to tell why Facebook awards their native content.
That being said, what are you waiting for to leverage video in your content marketing and Facebook paid campaigns?
One must use video ads to inspire your audience.
60% of shoppers say they have made buying decisions after getting ideas and inspiration from online videos.
Here’s more to understand how videos perform on Facebook.
Although stories are a recent addition to Facebook and Instagram experience, they’re quickly getting their share in users’ preferences.
86.6% of Instagram users post Stories & story Ads increase ad recall, purchase intent, message association and, of course, CTR.
These statistic are based on Instagram, so in the Facebook Ads Manager you can set up your campaign to include Instagram Stories into the mix.
And get ready for more branding, engagement, and sales.
Ok, your Facebook Ads campaigns are properly segmented, you’re using videos and stories to connect with your target audience, and there are clicks.
Lots of them if you’re doing things right.
But not as many conversions.
People visit your store and product pages, but they don’t buy.
Some of those reasons might be out of your control – limited budget, personal taste, etcetera – but there are things you can do to improve customer’s buying experience.
Like an optimized landing page.
Remember, you’re trying to earn their trust so they feel confident enough to buy.
If your website doesn’t look professional, they’ll just come back to the search results and click on the next link.
And all the hard work put into your campaigns will be lost.
To prevent that, make sure you invite the right people to the party (Facebook ads), and once they say yes, they find a clean and enjoyable environment to connect with you.
Through email marketing and lead nurturing, you can keep the conversation going.
Emails in their birthdays, abandoned carts automated sequences, or when they have over 6 months without buying another product, all these are opportunities to keep on their radar and raise their interest in what you offer.
In a traditional store, if a customer left without buying, the sale was lost – forever?
Most likely.
That’s not the case with eCommerce, and with Facebook as your ally how many more buyers would return to your website to complete the purchase?
Some came, saw and bought.
Others might come, see and leave.
But you can bring them back with retargeting campaigns.
You might remember being “followed” around the world wide web with products you checked recently, but didn’t buy.
Between the interest and the buying process, life can get in the way.
Here’s a shocking number: 72% of buyers tend to abandon their shopping carts without completing the purchase.
Image how much more cash would a retargeting campaign bring to your business.
According to Neil Patel, through retargeting campaigns you can remind someone who visited a specific product page, promote cross-sells and upsells, promote discounts as incentive to complete the purchase, related product categories, and show ads to people when they’re on a mobile device.
With retargeting, you add another touchpoint in the relationship so you’re bringing those people from the top (cold audience) to the bottom (hot lead) of your sales funnel.
Reminders, special promotions and content that offers additional value can help them to come back when they’re ready.
With internet and reviews, customers take their time to research before buying new products online.
Especially high value eCommerce products.
So as an eCommerce owner, ensure you reach them and provide the information needed to gain their trust and encourage them to buy.
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